This is a project that has moved forward in fits and starts of the course of a few years… It started when I saw the 1941 marines were newly added to the Eureka 15mm WWII line. Well, this is something I could not pass up. I ordered these and organized a force that I could use for any Wake Island of early Philippine fights. These would go with my M2A4 light tanks that I finished a long time ago.
I started by gluing all these to extra FOW bases that I had. As the uniform was very simple, I figured I could go with some simple techniques. I started with some tan spray paint and then painted the details on the figures.
I just sent through the colors for the face and weapons and finished up with the webbing and other details. This took a little longer than I thought, as webbing was a little harder than I thought.
Next I did the basing, by painting on Vallejo tan pumice to all the bases. This is another step that always takes longer than I expect. Slowly but surely, I did this in-between other projects.
The plan was to go with the easy painting and then hit everything with a wash to tie it all together. Unfortunately for me, I picked the wrong wash (Army Painter Soft Tone). This had the effect of darkening the uniforms more than I wanted, but oddly not enough not he basing… Disaster!
Well, that was a setback that took away my initiative, so I sat the project aside, until I could figure out what I wanted to do next…
Well, with the release of the new Pacific book by Battlefront, I decided to go back and see if I could save my project. I opted to try to lighten up the uniforms of all the figures, by doing a slight drybrush to the uniform sections with some tan. It did not come out great, but at least they do not look like British any more! Slowly but surely, I hit each model.
With that done, I moved back to the basing. I did a few layers of brybrushing with dark and light sand from Vallejo. I then painted the edges with tan brown. Next was the flocking. I followed the same method as my Japanese. I started with some light patches of Scenic Express mixed flock to cover up some basing imperfections and add color. I then added tufts from Gamers Grass or their leafy green (two shades).
I finished up by spraying all the models with Mr Hobby Matt finish. While not perfect, the units came out as workable. I still have a platoon of guns to do, but I have misplaced those miniatures and need to find them. I which someone made US M2A3 75mm Howitzers, but will have to settle for some mountain guns, once I find where I put them! In the meantime, I am ready for that first Philippine scenario!
- Manteuffel